Romeo and Juliet Bell Shakespere REVIEW 14 July 2023 ***1/2

THEATRE

By William Shakespeare, by Bell Shakespeare

At Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre, Melbourne until 19 July 2023

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***1/2

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 22 July 2023. KH

Rose Riley, Jacob Warner in Bell Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Photo Brett Boardman

Bell Shakespeare’s new production of Romeo and Juliet, deftly and imaginatively directed by Peter Evans, cunningly balances the comedy and romance of Shakespeare’s text with the simmering and tragic blood feud between two families: Romeo’s Montague clan and Juliet’s Capulets.

 

The play opens with all actors in plain, black costume, a subtle reminder that all characters from the two warring families are just humans, indistinguishable from each other when stripped of their tribalism and clannish regalia. The stark and flexible set design (Anna Tregloan) is equally unadorned, with two large, low, wooden rostra topped with gleaming, black flooring.

 

As the narrative unfolds, jewel-coloured rugs deck the floors and actors don multi-coloured costume items to define their characters and express their family affiliations. With the combination of these costumes (Tregloan), the music (Max Lyandvert) and dance (Simone Sault), the Capulet’s ball takes on a vivid, pulsating party atmosphere. The first half gallops along, continuing this lively pace and playful style.

 

Under Evans' direction, the cast penetrates the Shakespearean text, finding connection and meaning that has sometimes been lost in other Bell Shakespeare productions with less capable or experienced actors.

 

The success of this play relies on strong portrayals of the two star-crossed lovers, doomed from the start when we are told of their fate. Jacob Warner plays Romeo with restraint, creating a callow, naïve, awkward and wildly impulsive boy made foolish with infatuation and lust.

 

 

Rose Riley as Juliet is feisty, mercurial, infatuated, rebellious, secretive and passionate. She flickers between childishness and a burgeoning maturity tinged with cunning that can occur in contemporary 14-year-olds. In some scenes, Riley’s Juliet seems too self-confident, worldly-wise and modern, too knowingly sexual and intentionally seductive for a young girl in Shakespeare’s period.

 

One drawback to Riley’s generally appealing performance is her tendency to use broad gestures to “act out” the text which she does in Juliet’s famous “gallop apace” speech, rendering it far too histrionic.

 

Lucy Bell is warm, funny and sympathetic as the Nurse, Leinad Walker’s Tybalt is a volatile, belligerent youth displaying his tribal loyalty, and James Evans finds the tension between humour, fatherly pride and angry, parental control in Juliet’s father, Capulet.

 

Robert Menzies as Friar Laurence is a jewel in the production, capturing the essence of the poetry with his resonant, recognisable voice. In the singular, most moving moment in the production, the Friar, on finding Romeo dead, says simply, “Romeo”, and Menzies imbues this single word with all the character’s grief, guilt, despair, love and regret. We hear the Friar’s mind clanging with the realisation that his hope for the feuding families to unite at last is flouted.

 

As is often the case in Bell’s productions, several women swap genders to play male characters, but this has led to some casting misfires in this production. Blazey Best plays Romeo’s pal, Mercutio, as a bawdy buffoon rather than a raffish, playful, innocent lad that seem to dislike violence, while Alex King makes Paris inappropriately girlish instead of the stately, noble and handsome Count that he is.

 

This Romeo and Juliet highlights the inevitability of the grim fate of these two young people when living in the midst of such a violent and relentless blood feud and is directed, performed and designed with imagination and flair.

 

by Kate Herbert

 

Rose Riley, Robert Menzies, Jacob Warner in Bell Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Photo Brett Boardman

CAST:

Jacob Warner as Romeo

Rose Riley as Juliet

Lucy Bell as Nurse

Blazey Best as Mercutio/Prince

James Evans as Capulet

Alex King as Paris

Robert Menzies as Friar Laurence

Kyle Morrison as Benvolio

Monica Sayers as Lady Capulet

Leinad Walker as Tybalt/Friar John

 

CREATIVE TEAM:

Director Peter Evans

Associate Director Sophie Kelly

Set and Costume Designer Anna Tregloan

Lighting Designer Benjamin Cisterne

Composer & Sound Designer Max Lyandvert

Intimacy, Movement & Fight Director Nigel Poulton

Choreographer Simone Sault

Voice Coach Jack Starkey-Gill

Dramaturg James Evans

Text Consultant Ben Crystal